I wanted to go somewhere where my parents hadn't already set in their roots. While I could've lived under my parents' roof until I made enough money to get a place on my own and sustain myself, I wanted to start out on my own to grow more independent and self-sufficient.

Do you have plans of ever moving back to the Bay Area?

Absolutely! Once a Bay Area girl, always a Bay Area girl. I was born in Taiwan, but spent 20 of 23 of my years alive in the Bay, and I've come to appreciate the people's open-mindedness, stellar cuisine, and our "cutting-edgedness" even more. Dallas is great, but the Bay is my home.

What do you miss the most about the Bay Area?

The food! The people! THE WEATHER. Especially the weather. Y'all are blessed up in there.

Photo: John Cardasis, Getty Images

Image 4 of 22

Ellyn Parker

46, local government

Where do you live now?

Richmond, Virginia

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

20 years

How long has it been since you left?

2 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Ridiculous

Ellyn Parker

46, local government

Where do you live now?

Richmond, Virginia

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

20 years

How long has it been since you left?

2 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Ridiculous housing costs and the realization that I could never be a homeowner, nor could I provide a good life for myself and my daughter there. It's ironic, as I was the economic development person for Divisadero, Central Market and the Tenderloin, but could barely get by as a single parent on my city salary.

Do you have plans of ever moving back to the Bay Area?

Sigh, maybe one day. But it's too expensive, so it's unlikely.

What do you miss the most about the Bay Area?

The Beaches. The panhandle in the mornings covered in fog. Cafe International on a Sunday afternoon. Muni! Weird art everywhere. Working at City Hall. Golden Era Vegan Spicy Noodle soup. Real burritos. The beautiful people that I called friends and family there.

Photo: C.G.P Grey, Flickr

Image 5 of 22

Mark Newberry

66, coffee roasting

Where do you live now?

Paris, Ky.

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

35 years

How long has it been since you left?

12 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

All the adults wearing

Mark Newberry

66, coffee roasting

Where do you live now?

Paris, Ky.

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

35 years

How long has it been since you left?

12 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

All the adults wearing baseball caps.

Are you better off now than when you were living in the Bay Area?

More freedom, less pretension, less stress, less waiting in traffic.

What do you miss the most about the Bay Area?

The climate and La Taqueria.

Photo: Karen-Lee Ryan/For The San Antonio Express-News

Image 6 of 22

Jennifer Robinson

40, college recruiter and graphic designer

Where do you live now?

Nashville

How long did you live in the Bay Area and where?

I moved to the Bay Area in 2001 and lived in Oakland, Berkeley and

Jennifer Robinson

40, college recruiter and graphic designer

Where do you live now?

Nashville

How long did you live in the Bay Area and where?

I moved to the Bay Area in 2001 and lived in Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville at different times. I moved away for a few years to live in Japan, but I thought of the Bay Area as “home” for most of my young adult life.

How long has it been since you left?

We moved a little more than 3 years ago.

What made you leave the Bay Area?

I grew up in the South and was worried about my parents getting older and being far away from them if they needed me. We also were feeling the financial pressures of keeping our needs met in the Bay. Affording daycare and paying bills was hard with one child, but we worried about how to make ends meet with a second child coming. We looked at smaller metro areas like Austin, Atlanta, and New Orleans and tried to imagine our lives there. Nashville really resonated. We visited twice to be sure.

Are you better off now than when you were living in the Bay Area? If so, how?

Yes. My children feel safe in our neighborhood and can walk to friends’ houses. We own a home with a large yard and lots of space inside. I love how much green there is here compared to all the cement of the Bay Area. We pay less for the basic stuff like car insurance, dining out, and because my family is in both Kentucky and Florida, on travel. Our public school is great, and I believe we would likely have our daughter in a private school if we’d stayed in Emeryville.

What do you like most about where you live now?

All the green space and wildlife. I live 10 minutes from downtown Nashville, yet I see foxes on my walks and de

Photo: Marcoisler/Getty Images/RooM RF

Image 7 of 22

Ahmad Brown

33, counseling

Where do you live now?

Florida

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

2.5 years

How long has it been since you left?

3 months

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Cost of living too high. I

Ahmad Brown

33, counseling

Where do you live now?

Florida

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

2.5 years

How long has it been since you left?

3 months

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Cost of living too high. I wanted to buy a home and start a family, but could not afford to do either of those things.

Are you better off now than when you were living in the Bay Area?

Much better. I got more job offers in 3 months than the 2.5 years I was [in the Bay Area]. Virtually ALL the housing is less expensive. I can actually live alone and manage a real life.

What do you miss the most about the Bay Area?

The scenery, hiking, parks, legal marijuana, nice people.

Photo: Steve Helber, STF

Image 8 of 22

Victoria

29, marketing

Where do you live now?

Moving to Richmond, Va. from Ingleside in SF

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

6 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Insane rent for a crap apartment. Feels like

Victoria

29, marketing

Where do you live now?

Moving to Richmond, Va. from Ingleside in SF

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

6 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Insane rent for a crap apartment. Feels like the city is becoming a tech monoculture.

Are you better off now than when you were living in the Bay Area?

100% sure I will be. I can work remotely at my same job with 50% cheaper rent and other living costs. I'll be closer to family and have good friends from college in Virginia. And buying a house one day is a realistic possibility!

What do you miss the most about the Bay Area?

I'll miss friends, the food scene, and the top notch marijuana

Photo: EMILY KASK, AFP/Getty Images

Image 9 of 22

Suzanne Kovach

62, clerical

Where do you live now?

Texas

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

61 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Crime, traffic, economy.

Are you better off now than when you were living in

Suzanne Kovach

62, clerical

Where do you live now?

Texas

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

61 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Crime, traffic, economy.

Are you better off now than when you were living in the Bay Area? If so, how?

Yes. I'm living in a house twice the size at a quarter of the cost. No daily gunfire. No daily traffic nightmares. People are friendlier and pace is more relaxed. Sense of community. I'm not the only former Californian here. I have met a bunch of others who feel the same sense of relief.

What do you miss the most about the Bay Area?

Wine.

Photo: Helen Comer, Associated Press

Image 10 of 22

Megan Fister

47, web design

Where do you live now?

Nashville, Tenn.

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

19 years

How long has it been since you left?

2 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

My wife and I left for

Megan Fister

47, web design

Where do you live now?

Nashville, Tenn.

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

19 years

How long has it been since you left?

2 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

My wife and I left for many reasons but chief among them was housing affordability. We loved our apartment in Oakland but we had outgrown it and were unable to afford a home or a larger apartment.

Are you better off now than when you were living in the Bay Area?

Yes. The cost of living is rising in Nashville but overall it is much more affordable. This affordability means I have more disposable income to enjoy traveling, saving or buying things when I want them. I don't need to scrape by here.

Do you have plans of ever moving back to the Bay Area?

Because of the cost and the congestion, I probably would not move back to the Bay Area. But I love Northern California and would consider a more creative and casual community, if that still exists.

It's a bit hypothetical because I left so long ago. From an economic standpoint, I am probably better off than had I stayed in San Francisco -- I own a mid-century home on a river within walking distance of two grocery stores. The lot is over two-thirds of an acre and the home is assessed at under a million dollars. And did I mention there is no state income tax?

Do you have plans of ever moving back to the Bay Area?

Yes, though it seems less likely every year.

What do you miss the most about the Bay Area?

The climate and the hiking. Many characteristics unique to the Bay Area, like multicultural cuisine, have spread far and wide, but there's no substitute for Pacific views and fog-chilled air.

Image 12 of 22

Click on to read about the experiences of those who've moved on.

Photo: Jordan Siemens, Getty Images

Image 13 of 22

Eric

42, nonprofit finance

Where do you live now?

Portland

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

8 years

How long has it been since you left?

2 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

We couldn't afford to

Eric

42, nonprofit finance

Where do you live now?

Portland

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

8 years

How long has it been since you left?

2 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

We couldn't afford to purchase a single family home and we were tired of renting.

Are you better off now than when you were living in the Bay Area?

Mixed. It's difficult making a move in your 40s when you leave all your friends and colleagues behind and start fresh in a city where you don't know anyone. Making new friends has been slow going for us. Also, Oregonians generally don't like transplant Californians, so it's awkward when the "where are you from?" question comes up. On the plus side, we now have a beautiful home that we can afford, with a yard, a garden, and a basement apartment that we Airbnb. Also, Oregon's natural beauty is truly amazing and very accessible from Portland.

Do you have plans of ever moving back to the Bay Area?

The thought crosses my mind from time to time, but I have my doubts that we could afford to move back.

What do you miss the most about the Bay Area?

Its progressive people and the racial diversity.

Photo: X-Weinzar, Wikimedia

Image 14 of 22

Anne Moore

67, retired

Where do you live now?

Back in Marin after moving to Bellingham, Wash.

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

30 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Looking for less traffic, higher

Anne Moore

67, retired

Where do you live now?

Back in Marin after moving to Bellingham, Wash.

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

30 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Looking for less traffic, higher affordability, smaller town, quality of life in retirement.

Are you better off now than when you were living in the Bay Area?

Yes, in many ways we were. Bellingham has a wonderful quality of life, close to Canada, people are even healthier there, even more outdoorsy than here, close to Cascades, very creative, lots of beauty, no traffic, friendlier, slower pace, great people. Only ONE thing was wrong with it, and that was enough to make us move back - it is cloudy and gloomy there most of the time! The light is dimmer, you never see a big bowl of clear blue sky, and you can get chilled to the bone with the damp and dark. I so missed our radiant California sun melting the heat into my bones.

What do you miss the most about the Bay Area?

I missed the sunshine, the bay, the views of San Francisco, being able to get to the ocean, Pt. Reyes... the golden hills and the oaks, the excellence of the medical care and other services, the vitality and the huge numbers of volunteer organizations.

Photo: Don Ryan/AP

Image 15 of 22

Constanze Wilde

40, appraiser

Where do you live now?

Moved to Portland, Ore. in 2003, then moved back to Concord, Calif. in 2011

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Too expensive and too much traffic.

Are you

Constanze Wilde

40, appraiser

Where do you live now?

Moved to Portland, Ore. in 2003, then moved back to Concord, Calif. in 2011

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Too expensive and too much traffic.

Are you better off now than when you were living in the Bay Area?

Lived in the Portland suburbs but moved back to the Bay Area in 2011. The weather there sucked. Traffic was bad. Lack of diversity.

What did you miss the most about the Bay Area?

Missed the weather, diversity, culture, friends.

Photo: Randy Wells, Getty Images

Image 16 of 22

Eric

45, radio sales

Where do you live now?

Boise, Idaho

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

30 years

How long has it been since you left?

10 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

The "Governator," the

Eric

45, radio sales

Where do you live now?

Boise, Idaho

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

30 years

How long has it been since you left?

10 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

The "Governator," the overcrowding, high prices and the Enron scandal

Are you better off now than when you were living in the Bay Area?

No. The people of Boise are staunch conservatives with no education and completely judgmental. They are happy to be living 15 years behind everyone else in the country and the living wage is far below what it should be.

Do you have plans of ever moving back to the Bay Area?

No. Too expensive. I've priced myself out.

What do you miss the most about the Bay Area?

SPORTING EVENTS!!! First-rate concerts. The tourist traps. Family.

Photo: Eri Morita, Getty Images

Image 17 of 22

Mikr

37, video production

Where do you live now?

Portland

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

25 years. Born and raised.

What made you leave the Bay Area?

The lack of affordable housing.

Are you better off now than

Mikr

37, video production

Where do you live now?

Portland

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

25 years. Born and raised.

What made you leave the Bay Area?

The lack of affordable housing.

Are you better off now than when you were living in the Bay Area?

Financially speaking, yes. I own a home, traffic isn't terrible, food is good and I'm close to the ocean, wine country and snow. The downside: the rain. It's been non-stop and I'm convinced it makes the people weird. Not in a fun way either. As more people move here the metro is becoming more diverse, but the area is very white.

What do you miss the most about the Bay Area?

I miss the weather. The laid back attitude and general pleasantness of the people. Oh, and the Asian food [in Portland] is a a couple of steps behind.

No, I feel restrained in southern Washington. We only have fields. People shoot guns for fun.

Do you have plans of ever moving back to the Bay Area?

Yes, I really love the location and people.

What do you miss the most about the Bay Area?

The food and culture. I miss being able to drive an hour to San Francisco and 45 minutes to Santa Cruz. Being so close to so much.

Photo: George Rose, Getty Images

Image 20 of 22

Taylor Bawden

23, sales

Where do you live now?

Seattle

How long has it been since you left?

5 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Attending the University of Washington.

Are you better off now than when you were

Taylor Bawden

23, sales

Where do you live now?

Seattle

How long has it been since you left?

5 years

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Attending the University of Washington.

Are you better off now than when you were living in the Bay Area?

No, where I lived in Los Gatos was much nicer. However, I can afford a much better place in Seattle for the same cost of one in the Bay Area.

Do you have plans of ever moving back to the Bay Area?

Not at this time.

What do you miss the most about the Bay Area?

The weather and my childhood friends.

Photo: Don Ryan, Associated Press

Image 21 of 22

Lois Smith

Retired

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

I was a native.

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Married an Oregonian.

Are you better off now than when you were living in the Bay Area?

No.

What do you miss

Lois Smith

Retired

How long did you live in the Bay Area?

I was a native.

What made you leave the Bay Area?

Married an Oregonian.

Are you better off now than when you were living in the Bay Area?

No.

What do you miss the most about the Bay Area?

The energy. I feel it when I land at SFO. The politics. The liberal attitude. Mostly the weather [and how it] rains in season not all year long.

Photo: EMILY KASK, AFP/Getty Images

Image 22 of 22

A Texas flag attached to a pickup truck waves outside a shelter in Port Arthur, Texas, on September 2, 2017. As floodwaters receded in Houston, nearby cities such as Beaumont -- which had lost its water supplyA Texas flag attached to a pickup truck waves outside a shelter in Port Arthur, Texas, on September 2, 2017. As floodwaters receded in Houston, nearby cities such as Beaumont -- which had lost its water supply -- and Port Arthur struggled to recover. One week after Harvey slammed into southeast Texas as a Category Four hurricane, rescuers were still out searching for people still inside flooded homes. / AFP PHOTO / Emily KaskEMILY KASK/AFP/Getty Images

Editor's note: SFGATE explores how people's lives change after leaving the Bay Area, for better or for worse, in our "Grass is greener" series. Today we're focusing on those who have relocated to the South.

The call of the South pulled them from the Bay Area at different points in their lives and for different reasons.

Tom Kerekes moved to Atlanta from an affluent East Bay suburb with his parents, just as he was starting high school.

Catherine Devlin left for Irving, Texas, upon graduating from UC Berkeley. After 22 years in the Bay Area, she wanted to see the world outside Northern California.

East Bay native Molly McTarnaghan, moved to Charleston, S.C., to study. After graduating, she stayed.

Then there’s Allison Walker. She left the Bay Area, just over two months ago, after 17 years in Hayward. She moved to Mansfield, Texas for a job.

Related Stories

In a time when U.S. politics are undeniably partisan and polarizing, one must acknowledge the elephant (or should we say donkey?) in the room: Why would someone move from the liberal Bay Area to the conservative South?

Well, for one, a massive change of pace.

“I always wanted to try a new city after school,” said Devlin, who graduated from UC Berkeley in 2014. She assumed that new city would be Seattle, just a short flight up the coast from the Bay Area. But when it came time to choose a destination, reality sunk in, and so did the cost of living. She soon discovered that everything is cheaper in Texas.

“Everyone in California thought it was an insane idea,’” she said. “But it’s amazing how much further money will take you in Dallas.”

A one-bedroom apartment rents for about $1,000 a month in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, according to Rent Cafe data, compared to $2,914 for the same-sized apartment in Berkeley.

After three years in Irving, Devlin, who works in accounting and HR, says it’s no longer about the money. “There’s just more community here,” she said, citing the openness and “genuine, authentic” nature of her friends and co-workers, not to mention good ol’ Southern hospitality.

Walker found the same when she moved to Mansfield, just south of Fort Worth. She was shocked to see kids playing in the street until the street lamps turned off for the night, and even more surprised when neighbors came over to introduce themselves.

“I used to bake extra sweet potato pies just to get to know my Hayward neighbors,” she said. In Mansfield, “It’s like a TV commercial, everyone’s all, ‘Welcome to the neighborhood!'’’

When McTarnaghan, who recently moved to Washington D.C., started school at the College of Charleston, she said her classmates were welcoming, but they were also presumptuous.

“People expected me to be the ‘typical’ Californian depicted on TV – blonde, surfer, super ‘chill,’” she said. “Many people I met had never been to California.”

Of course the people you encounter, and their varied experiences, depend on where you go in the South. In a place like Atlanta, where Kerekes has lived for 10 years, transplants like himself abound.

Click through the slideshow above to read the stories of people who left the Bay Area for the South. See what they like better and what they miss about the Bay Area. Responses have been edited for clarity and length.

Kerekes, a pharmacy technician, describes his trendy Little Five Points neighborhood as a “mini San Francisco.”

“There’s tons of cool music venues, lots of ethnic food, lots of different cultures,” he said, with a slight southern twang that hints at his 10 years in Georgia.

The prejudice, says Kerekes, comes from both sides. “Southerners think Westerners are one way, and Westerners think Southerners are one way,” he said. “It’s all just stereotypes.”

VIDEO: How much cheaper is the South? Comparing prices in Austin, Texas and SF

Some of the stereotypes, Devlin admits, hold true, especially outside of the bigger cities. Devlin says she looked forward to a formal work atmosphere, in which she “could wear a pencil skirt every day,” and she certainly found that in Texas – to a fault.

“When I went to Berkeley, it was a bunch of mini Mark Zuckerbergs in jeans and hoodies,” she said, explaining that most of her female colleagues in Texas “wear lots of jewelry, a full face of makeup, perfect nail polish.”

“Now I miss wearing a hoodie and jeans,” she said.

Formality permeates other facets of life in the South, Devlin said, including the packed pews during Sunday mass. She describes the formal atmosphere at services as “bordering on pretentious.”

The sheer fact that people go to church in Georgia, outside of Christmas and Easter, was a wake-up call for Kerekes. He says many of his friends are “deeply religious,” whereas back in the Bay Area, Christianity hardly has the sway that it does in the southern states.

Pew backs up Kerekes' findings. The research center estimates that 79 percent of Georgians are Christian, whereas only 63 percent of Californians identify as such. Georgians are more God-fearing, too: 74 percent claim to believe in God – a figure that's 20 percentage points lower in California.

Kerekes admits being skeptical to the church-going habits of his friends and their families, but “you get used to it.” Admittedly, Kerekes said, Bay Area households have their own unusual habits that incite skepticism in southerners.

“It goes both ways,” he says.

Embracing cultural distinctions was part of the delight of switching regions, said McTarnaghan, but the deep-set political differences between the South and West Coast were harder to swallow, especially in light of recent events, she said.

In the Bay Area, the liberal attitude of the general populace is reflected in the state’s political representation. After all, San Francisco was one of the first U.S. cities to legalize gay marriage, and some southern states continue to challenge it.

Paul Chabotbuilt an entire real estate company around this notion. Chabot lived in Southern California for 43 years, and in that time, he acted as the state parole board commissioner and the president of Drug Free California, which opposed efforts to legalize marijuana in California. He also made a bid for Congress in 2016, but lost to the Democratic candidate.

The loss was a wakeup call for Chabot and his wife. “After we lost, in a heavily Democratic district, we realized that we couldn’t do any more here,” he said. “We can’t help people who don’t want to help themselves.”

In his four decades in California, Chabot says he saw “state crime levels skyrocket, schools go to the bottom percentile and many jobs leaving the state.”

The couple decided to seek solace in a more like-minded community, and moved their family to a small community in north Texas, called McKinney. Chabot describes it like “Orange County in the 1980s,” with “no graffiti, no gangs and kids playing in the streets.”

“It felt like a backdrop plucked from Universal Studios,” he said.

In May, Chabot launched Conservative Move, a real estate company that relocates conservatives in deep blue states, like California, to red states. He claims more than 3,000 people have signed up for the service, which features a network of 100 Realtors across the country, and over 100 families have already been relocated, to states like Texas, Arizona and Idaho.

The company operates on the notion that conservatives in a deep blue state feel outnumbered with no representation, so “why not go somewhere that you feel the policies represent who you are,” Chabot asked. “That’s a credo that sells itself.”

Devlin, who grew up in a conservative family, found her Texan acquaintances to be surprisingly centrist.

“My whole world as a kid was ultra-conservative,” she said. “Then I went to Berkeley and my whole world became ultra-liberal.”

“Moving here has been the most center-of-the-road, moderate environment I’ve ever been in,” she said.

Many people SFGATE interviewed for this story noted that they disagree with many of the beliefs and actions of their adopted state legislatures, but in their day-to-day life, they’re not swimming in a sea of staunch conservatives. Many stressed that living in an immediate community of like-minded people can ease the terrifying notion that they disagree with their state governments.

Kerekes says he has to go out of his way to find the stereotypical “redneck conservative” with a Confederate flag pasted in their window. It’s not like that in the bigger cities, but drive a few miles into the rural South, and it’s a different story, he said.

Even then, “If you go to some of the counties outside of Atlanta and you see a person with a Trump/Pence bumper sticker on their truck, you know they’re an a**hole,” he said.

Walker, a senior strategic account manager for AT&T, says she’s found people to be “a lot more tolerant than one would think.”

“There are people with different opinions, of course,” she said. “And many will inform you of that.”

Walker, who is black, described a particular incident at the county fair a few weeks ago, in which a man cut in front of her, and when she took offense, he proceeded to call her a racial epithet.

When asked if this would happen in the Bay Area, she didn’t hesitate to say “no.” But then she took pause.

“You know, I think racism is just as rampant in the Bay Area,” she said. “But it’s less obvious, less in-your-face.”

Walker, who says she moved to the South for a job opportunity and cheaper cost of living, describes the differences between the two regions with a truck metaphor: In the South, the truck is coming at you full-speed, lights blaring and horn honking, she said. In the Bay Area, the truck sneaks up on you.

She recalled a particular moment with a lifelong friend when she realized they had fundamentally different political opinions.

“My eyes were opened after I’d built a decades-long relationship with them,” she said. “What are you supposed to do at that point?”

Walker prefers the unabashed openness in the South to the Bay Area’s sleeper waves that strike when you’re least expecting it.

Racial equality, she says, is talked about “all the time in the Bay Area, but I see it more in action in the South.”

“In the neighborhood I live in now, I’m not the highest educated minority woman on the block,” she said. “I’m pretty sure I was in Hayward.”

So too, she says her office is full of minority women in senior positions. It wasn’t like that at some companies she worked at in the Bay Area.

According to census data, the majority of Bay Area residents are white, accounting for 57.6 percent of the population, compared to 47.7 percent in Dallas-Fort Worth. While black people account for 6.2 percent of the Bay Area's residents, a figure that is nearly 10 percent higher in Dallas-Fort Worth, the Bay Area has higher populations of hispanic and Asian-identifying residents.

Having grown up in the Central Valley, Walker says she got used to being one of the only black people; it forced her to become “more resilient.” She learned that embracing her difference could “make a difference in other people’s minds.”

But that’s a heavy burden for one person to carry, and she doesn’t want her sons to be forced to act as the torchbearers of their race.

“In Texas, it’s nice to not always have to be the bridge between the gap,” she said.

Though only two months into her Texas sojourn, Walker isn’t looking back longingly upon the West.

“I have no intentions to return to the Bay,” she said. “It’s the best move I ever made.”